COLUMN: Eagles exhibiting toughness

For the past few months, Southern Miss athletic director Jeff Hammond has been espousing a "Return to Toughness," a mantra that he hopes will be embraced not only by USM's teams but its fans base as well.

Hammond had to be smiling Saturday.

USM's men's basketball trailed at East Carolina by 11 points in the second half, by eight late in the game, but closed on a 12-4 run to force overtime and toppled the Pirates 86-82 at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, N.C.

Back in Hattiesburg, on a windy, chilly day at Pete Taylor Park, USM found itself down 3-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. That's when Mason Robbins cracked a three-run home run with two outs to help the Golden Eagles to a 5-3 win over visiting Missouri of the Southeastern Conference.

Call it what you like. Grit. Grind. Toughness.

That's exactly what was on display Saturday.

A collective toughness

Granted, skill obviously plays into the equation.

Not everyone can turn on a fastball, let alone one on the inside corner, and crush it some 400 feet from where it started.

But Robbins can, and he came up huge in USM's big win, with two hits, two runs scored and three RBIs

Nor can everyone make shooting a basketball look like they were putting it away on a pantry shelf, a smooth stroke on nearly every shot.

But Dwayne Davis can, and he came up huge in USM's big basketball win, knocking down clutch free throws to send the game into overtime. He finished with 23 points, his third consecutive game with at least 20 points.

But for those guys _ as well as their teammates, to be sure _ to flash their talents, there also has to be a collective display of intestinal fortitude across the roster. There has to be a belief not only in oneself, but in one's teammates, and that by playing hard as hard as you can for as long as you can that good things not only can, but will, happen.

Starts at the top

That starts at the top, and it's hard to imagine two coaches or their staffs who espouse that toughness mantra more than Donnie Tyndall's basketball program and Scott Berry's baseball teams.

Tyndall has taken a collection of inexperience and he and his staff and his players have crafted a 20-win season. Want an example of how tough the Golden Eagles are? A team with an acknowledged height disadvantage scored 54 points in the past at ECU Saturday.

Berry and his staff stayed the course last season with a youthful team that has grown up, grinding out two, quality wins over a quality, opening-series opponent.

We don't know if USM will earn an NCCA Tournament bid in basketball. But it's nearly as remarkable to be considering that possibility at all at this point of the season with this team.

We don't know what definitively can be gleaned after two baseball games in February, and how that projects over the rest of the season.

What we do know is that Hammond need look no further than the athletic areans fronting Fourth Street to find his mantra being played out.

Contact sports writer Tim Doherty at 584-3112.

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COLUMN: Eagles exhibiting toughness

For the past few months, Southern Miss athletic director Jeff Hammond has been espousing a 'Return to Toughness,' a mantra that he hopes will be embraced not only by USM's teams but its fans base as